Confirming the industry's worst-kept secret, Valve CEO Gabe Newell has confirmed Valve is working on its 'Steam Box', a Steam-powered HTPC geared towards console-like gaming. It'll most likely run Linux. "Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he told Kotaku. "If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that's what some people are really gonna want for their living room." Steam has 50 million subscribers, so there's a market here. As a comparison: Xbox Live has 40 million subscribers.

I like the idea of having a Steam Box as a "controlled environment" (I bet it will be hackable, if you want to), while at the same time having the possibility to just use a normal PC to run it.

I have zero interest in Steam, but if somebody puts out a PC-like device in a console form factor that is hackable for around $300, then I could load a bunch of emulators on it, and hook up an X-arcade Tankstick Sure, you can build your own one of those, but I'd rather not do the work, and most 'off the shelf' models I've seen that are decent quality tend to run $500+.

As for Steam, I might be into it, if they ever put their promise to 'unlock' games if the servers go out of business down in righting, and make it legally binding. Until that happens, I'm not 'buying' games that I'll never own. Some of you are going to be out hundreds of dollars when/if Steam ever goes away, and they give all their users a big 'f**k you' in regard to promises that they made.

As for Steam, I might be into it, if they ever put their promise to 'unlock' games if the servers go out of business down in righting, and make it legally binding. Until that happens, I'm not 'buying' games that I'll never own. Some of you are going to be out hundreds of dollars when/if Steam ever goes away, and they give all their users a big 'f**k you' in regard to promises that they made.

That used to be a great argument for me. But almost all games older than 5 years I don't play anymore. Either because they aren't fun anymore or because they don't work anymore on new computers. So if steam would disappear I would miss the games I am currently playing but other games that I am done with I would not miss.
At best, steam can give me a pathetic fuck you.